A Day in the Life Of
Day 84
When you travel long term you sometimes need a day of chores, just having a day to get things done feels good sometimes. Today that was our plan. This isn’t an entry filled with adventure but it just a look at a regular day in our lives today. We had to reserve hotels in Panama for the inlaws, email hostels and boat captains about sailing to Colombia in a few weeks time, do laundry, get my haircut and get money from the bank. This was going to be a busy day. It started off well at Shalom Bakery. A Korean run bakery named Shalom in Panama, go figure. Regardless they made fabulous cinnamon rolls and fantastic strong coffee.
After breakfast I walked over to the Romero supermarket where there was a Banco Nacional Panama ATM. I withdrew $400 from Jordana’s account. The machine took a while, then I could hear that noise that sounds like its counting the money, you know right before it spits out the cash. It did this for a good 20 seconds and then flashed on the screen, “Thank you, your transaction has been successful”. Right, so where the heck is my damn money!? I stood there, pushed some buttons and nothing. OK maybe it just messed up, couldn’t have actually withdrawn the cash, could it? I walked out and told Jordana, we went to the internet cafe with Jonathan where we could check if the money had actually been withdrawn.
“You have got to be joking me!” Were my words as we looked at the screen and so that the money had in fact been taken from the account. Great way to start the day. Needless to say our internet time was dominated with emails home inquiring how to get our money. Apparently its the bank back in Canada that does an investigation. I’m not sure what that means but an investigation is underway.
Next stop we booked a white water rafting trip for the following day, easy and quick. After that Jonathan and I both went to get our haircut. It was a decent job if a little shorter than I usually like it. Still for $2 I’m not complaining. Across the street we picked up our freshly cleaned laundry. This was the best smelling and quickest laundry we have had done, all for $2.40. At least things were going smoothly since the bank incident. Its like I always say, thongs will even up. Like that Sienfeld episode, “Even Steven”. So I figured things had to get better.
So there you have it, travel isn’t always glamorous. Some days are just filled with mundane things that need to get done, and when things don’t go right far away from home its a real pain to deal with it. We finished the night with more rice, beans bit with some spaghetti thrown in. Quite good actually and it cost us $1.75/each. Back at the cottage we spent the evening drinking more beer and cheap Argentine wine while discussing city planning. Jonathan is an Urban Planner and I’m a bit obsessed with urban planning. After a few beers we had the perfect city designed and once again solved most of the worlds problems. I went to bed thinking this might be one expensive day if we don’t get that $400 back. I tried not to think about it though, which was not so hard as I thought about the class 4 rapids we would be rushing down in the morning. Oh and also how I don’t have to worry about getting up at 6am for work in the morning. Even a mundane day turns into some sort of adventure.
Tags: ATM, Boquete, central america, Panama, rafting
Michael Coroneos
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